DGUSA Freedom Fight

You definitely want to check out this hot grapefruit action.
October 30, 2010 – Rahway, New Jersey
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Arik Cannon
They trade holds to start. Jacobs gets a roll up for 2. Cannon takes control with a Mutalock. He gets a roll up for 2. Jacobs hits a bulldog. Cannon hits a back elbow. Jacobs hits a big boot. He misses a plancha. He comes back with a head scissor takedown and a suicide dive. Back in the ring Jacobs hits a Curb Stomp. Cannon hits a neckbreaker for 2. He hits a dropkick for 2. Jacobs hits a swinging suplex for 2. He hits a facebuster for 2. He hits a spear in the corner for 2. Cannon hits an exploder into the turnbuckle. Jacobs starts favoring his braced knee. Cannon busts him open with headbutts. Jacobs hits a clothesline. He hits the Ace Crusher. He hits the diving senton for 2. Cannon hits a thrust kick. He slugs Jacobs and hits Total Anarchy for 2. He hits it again. He hits the Glimmering Warlock for 2. Jacobs locks in the End Time for the win at 12:12. This was rather run-of-the-mill until the energetic home stretch. Not unlike a lot of Dragon Gate openers, so I guess if nothing else it was appropriate.
Rating: **¼
Backstage Ronin has a promo for everyone. I really like Johnny Gargano’s line, “We’re Ronin, and you’re screwed.” That’s just good stuff. He, Chuck Taylor and Rich Swann go on to cut a promo that makes them seem more annoying than dangerous, saying that the WARRIORS, World-1 and Kamikaze will all have to deal with them.
BxB Hulk {W1} & Homicide {W1} vs. Akira Tozawa {K} & Jon Moxley {K}
If ever someone fit in a Dragon Gate stable more poorly than Homicide fits in World-1 I haven’t seen it. He and Moxley brawl to start. Hulk hits both opponents with a dropkick. Tozawa hits a butt butt. Hulk blocks a second one with a dropkick. He hits another dropkick. He hits a basement dropkick for 2. Homicide hits a bulldog and Hulk hits another dropkick. They hit a double elbowdrop. Hulk hits a roundhouse kick for 2. He hits a back kick. Homicide hits a vertical suplex for 2. Tozawa hits a low blow. Moxley beats Homicide in the corner. The commentators bring up Sami Callihan despite the fact that he hasn’t been on the show yet. They must have seen him on the preshow and not taken into account that PPV fans wouldn’t have seen that. Tozawa hits butt butt. Moxley lays in some elbows. Homicide goes to the eyes. Moxley puts on the STF. Hulk makes the save. Tozawa hits Hulk with a bicycle kick. Homicide hits Moxley with a diving shoulder tackle. Tozawa hits a fisherman neckbreaker and a knee kick. Homicide no-sells it so Tozawa levels him with an elbow. Moxley hits a superplex. Homicide hits the Ace Crusher. Moxley gets a backslide for 2. He puts on an armbar. Hulk hits a leg lariat. He sweeps Tozawa’s legs and hits a senton for 2. He hits an axe kick. Tozawa misses the Apron Kara Tozawa but hits a senton. Hulk hits the BxB Star Press. He hits the EVO for 2. Homicide shoves Moxley to the floor and hits a dive. Tozawa kicks Hulk. Hulk hits a high kick. He hits an enziguiri. Tozawa hits the Genkai for 2. He hits a bicycle kick. Hulk hits the Mouse and a lariat. He blocks the German suplex. Tozawa ducks the First Flash and gets a schoolboy for 2. Hulk hits the First Flash and the FTX for the win at 13:31. This was sort of weird and chaotic, but the crowd loved it and the action never stopped.
Rating: ***
After the match Moxley mocks Homicide, which makes no sense given that he lost the match. He wants more of Homicide. The fans want it too. Homicide rushes the ring and brawls with Moxley. The crowd, who wanted the fight so bad, totally dies during the exchange. Where you at Jersey? They’re doing what you wanted! The brawl goes on forever. Finally things come to an end after Moxley destroys Homicide’s arm with a chair and referees and jobbers come out to stop the thing. I was worried it would end without any kind of climax, so I’ll take a Homicide injury angle.
In the back Austin Aries is with Ricochet and Genki Horiguchi. He tells Ronin that he’s an honorary WARRIOR for the night. Ronin is going to pay a price for their betrayal at Bushido.
CIMA {W5} vs. Shingo Takagi {K}
They trade holds to start. A power battle leads to Takagi taking control with a shoulder tackle. He hits a fistdrop. He puts on the Mark Nulty Special. CIMA hits a leg kick. Takagi hits a kneedrop. He hits a backbreaker. He whips CIMA into the barricade. He hits a chair shot to the back. Back in the ring Takagi stands on CIMA’s back. He hits another backbreaker. He hits a senton for 2. CIMA comes back with a double stomp. His back is too hurt to capitalize. He hits a dropkick. He hits another dropkick and a few back and chest kicks. He hits a senton for 2. He hits the Nakayubi. He holds on too long and Takagi hits the dead lift suplex. CIMA blocks the Blood Fall and hits a kick to the face. Takagi hits a backbreaker. CIMA pops up and hits the Superdrol before collapsing. He hits the double knee kick to the back. He hits a missile dropkick. He hits the Perfect Driver for 2. He hits the Tokarev. He hits the Neji to Hashi which the commentators call a super Perfect Driver. In what way was that any kind of a driver? Do your homework boys. CIMA misses the Meteora and Takagi hits a lariat. Takagi hits the STAY DREAM for 2. CIMA blocks MADE IN JAPAN but falls victim to the Blood Fall. Takagi hits the Pumping Bomber for 2. He hits MADE IN JAPAN for 2. CIMA hits a superkick. Takagi hits the haymaker. CIMA hits another superkick and the Schwein for 2. He hits the Mona Lisa Overdrive (he missed it really but he never goes for that move so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt). He hits a powerbomb, a double stomp and the Meteora for the win at 17:10. I liked this a lot, but your mileage may vary. It was much more in the neighborhood of their PWG match than it was similar to their match from Japan. It was really just both guys throwing moves at each other, with CIMA hitting more of his signature stuff than Takagi could and thus getting the win. These two really need to go at it again in Japan.
Rating: ***¾
After the match CIMA gets on the microphone and announces a tag team tournament to take place in January for DGUSA’s tag team titles. Doesn’t Dragon Gate already have tag titles? I thought you might ask that. Well they also have their own singles title in the Open the Dream Gate Championship. So just as DGUSA has the Open the Freedom Gate belt, now they too will have the Open the United Gate titles.
Jimmy Jacobs announces that he’s ready to win his first ever major singles championship. People might not see him as a contender for the Open the Freedom Gate title, but with two big wins over Jon Moxley and Arik Cannon, he’s started on the road to being the next champion. Fingers crossed, Jimmy.
Johnny Gargano {R}, Rich Swann {R} & Chuck Taylor {R} vs. Genki Horiguchi {W5}, Ricochet {W5} & Austin Aries
Ronin’s going to have to put in some work after that crappy promo. Ricochet and Taylor start. They do their typical early match dance to start. Ricochet hits a basement dropkick. Gargano hits Horiguchi with a shoulder tackle. Horiguchi hits a dropkick. Swann and Horiguchi have a dance-off, showing just how much more charisma Horiguchi has than Swann. Aries wants Swann but Swann runs away. Aries forces Gargano to tag Swann. Swann puts Aries in an armbar. He brags about getting the better of Aries. Aries takes it in stride and then returns the favor, abusing Swann’s arm. He swats away a dropkick. He shoves Swann around the ring. He hits the dropkick out of the head scissors. Horiguchi hits a back elbow. With the help of his partners Swann comes back with a vertical suplex. Horiguchi hits Taylor with a hiptoss. Aries tags in and cleans house. He hits Swann with an elbowdrop for 2. Gargano hits Aries with a spear. Taylor hits a moonsault. Swann hits a frog splash for 2. That’s more like it! Ronin stays in control but they don’t do anything of note for a while. Taylor and Gargano throw Swann onto Aries for 2. Aries hits a lariat. Ricochet tags in and hits Taylor with a head scissor takedown. He does the same to Gargano and Swann. He hits another, nuttier one on Taylor. He hits Gargano with a standing moonsault for 2. Taylor hits him with a flapjack and Gargano hits a facebuster. They put on a dual submission. Aries and Horiguchi join in to turn it into Some Circus Shit. Swann thankfully breaks up the whole mess. Aries hits Ronin with the Heat Seeking Missile. Horiguchi hits Taylor with a dropkick off the top. Ricochet hits the Chocolate Rain for 2. Taylor hits Horiguchi with a chinbreaker. Ronin hits a triple kick for 2. Taylor hits Aries with a spinebuster. Swann hits a running SSP. Gargano hits a dropkick for 2. Swann throws around pimp slaps until Ricochet hits him with the Backslide Driver. Aries hits the IED and Horiguchi gets the Backslide from Heaven for 2. Horiguchi hits Gargano with a swinging DDT. Taylor hits Sole Food. Aries hits an elbowdrop. Swann hits a spin kick. Ricochet hits a back flip kick. He hits a corkscrew Sasuke Special on everyone. In the ring he misses a shooting star press and Gargano kills him with a superkick. Swann hits a kick to the face. He hits an elevated double stomp leading into a DDT from Taylor and the Hurt’s Donut from Gargano, giving Ronin the win at 21:13. Ronin looked great when they were triple-teaming anyone. Their sequences were smooth and made them look dangerous. We need to see more of that and less dancing around. That finish was unreal too, and made Ronin look very dangerous.
Rating: ****
In the back Moxley brags about how easy it was for him to put down Homicide. He encourages YAMATO to do the same to Masato Yoshino.
Masato Yoshino {W1} vs. YAMATO {K}
Yoshino’s title is not on the line. YAMATO puts Yoshino in the ropes to start. They trade holds on the mat. YAMATO gets a crucifix pin for 2. Yoshino hits a dropkick. He hits a head scissor takedown. He hits a dropkick to the arm. He hits an armbreaker. He puts on a hammerlock but YAMATO gets to the ropes. YAMATO puts on a leglock but Yoshino quickly gets to the ropes. YAMATO controls on the floor. In the ring YAMATO stays on Yoshino’s leg. He hits a bodyslam for 2. He puts on an anklelock. Yoshino gets to the ropes. YAMATO dropkicks the leg. He hit a dragon screw and puts on a figure 4 leglock. Yoshino gets to the ropes. YAMATO misses a dropkick and Yoshino hits the Sling Blade. He puts on the Coumori. He hits the Track and Field Dropkick. He misses the shotgun dropkick and YAMATO hits an elbow. He dropkicks the leg. Yoshino avoids the punt and puts on From Jungle. He gets a sunset flip for 2. YAMATO kicks the leg and hits a German suplex. He hits the corner elbow. Yoshino hits the avalanche Sling Blade for 2. YAMATO blocks the Lightning Spiral and hits the spear. Yoshino kicks YAMATO’s face. He hits a double stomp to the arm. He hits the Ude Yoshino. YAMATO blocks the Sol Naciente and puts on an abdominal stretch. Yoshino blocks the Galleria with a reverse DDT. He hits the shotgun dropkick and the Lightning Spiral for 2. YAMATO crotches Yoshino up top and hits a superplex for 2. He puts on the sleeper hold. He hits the sleeper suplex. He hits the punt and the brainbuster for 2. Yoshino blocks the Galleria and hits a crucifix bomb for 2. He gets a crucifix pin for 2. YAMATO hits a big boot and the Galleria for 2. Out of moves in his arsenal YAMATO looks lost. Yoshino fires back with two Torbellinos. YAMATO blocks the Sol Naciente and gets a roll up for 2. Yoshino locks in the Sol Naciente and gets the win at 23:41. With nothing on the line the crowd had a hard time getting into the match. Without their volume there wasn’t as much steam as one might hope for, but the back and that occurred in the match was quite entertaining. This was about on par with their match from Kobe in July.
Rating: ***¾
Biggest mystery of the show: Why pay all the money to bring in Akebono and then not use him on your PPV? The match is short and sure to make Brodie Lee look like a killer, so why cut it?